


the strongest stars

by puertoricansuperman



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Star Wars References, Team Flash, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-07
Updated: 2018-12-07
Packaged: 2019-09-13 21:03:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,981
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16899807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/puertoricansuperman/pseuds/puertoricansuperman
Summary: Jax hasn’t seen Rogue One yet. Wally decides to fix that. A family movie night ensues.





	the strongest stars

Jax and Wally are sitting together in STAR Labs’s fancy new speedster training room when Wally pops the question.

“Have you seen the new Star Wars movie?”

Jax leans against his boyfriend’s shoulder and sips from his water bottle. Combat training with a speedster is no joke, even if it’s technically one of the easiest things Jax has done all month.

“The Force Awakens? Yeah, I saw it with my mom.” They’d splurged and gone to the theater right after it came out, barely a month before Jax was due to disappear on the Waverider, though of course neither of them knew that at the time. Jax feels a little guilty just thinking about it, even now. He has to remind himself that he and Stein already apologized for that, that he’s spent most of his shore leaves in 2016 with his mom, and that he’s allowed to spend some time with his boyfriend, too.

“No, I mean the other movie,” Wally says. Jax focuses on him again and tamps down the guilt. “Rogue One.”

It takes a minute for Jax to place that title. “Wait, that came out? When?”

“Last December,” Wally says. “2016.”

 _And no one told me?_ Jax thinks, though of course no one else on the Waverider would have known, except for Rip, who wouldn’t have cared. And Wally’s telling him now. “No, I—didn’t even know that came out.”

“Man, you missed a lot.” Wally pauses, as if in thought, for about two seconds. “We should watch it.”

“Here?”

“Yeah, why not? Cisco and Barry won’t mind, they’re the two biggest nerds I know. I bet Cisco would love to show it here.”

Cisco Ramon _would_ love to show it here. And Jax would love to watch it, while cuddling with his boyfriend and hanging out with his friends. Just the thought feels happy. “Yeah, okay. Sure.”

“Awesome!” Wally jumps up. “I’ll go ask Cisco.”

“Hey, you think—”

Wally is gone before Jax has a chance to finish. Jax sighs—and then Wally zips back.

“Sorry,” he says. “What did you say?”

“It okay if I invite Stein?” Jax says. “I think he’d like to see it too. I know that might not’ve been what you had in mind, but—”

“No, no, it’s fine, it’s totally fine,” Wally says. “We’ll just make it a movie night. A family movie night.”

“That would be cool,” Jax says. Wally nods, smiles, and speeds away.

Jax takes a minute to think about how lucky he is. Then he heads off to find Stein.

_____

Cisco, of course, absolutely loves the idea of hosting a Star Wars movie night at STAR Labs. He and Caitlin set up a bedsheet and a projector in one of the spare rooms and cover the floor with a hoard of blankets and pillows. Then Barry and Wally run out and return with enough popcorn and candy to feed a small army. It’s a truly impressive effort for a movie most of them have already seen.

“It’s not about the movie, man,” Wally says, as he and Jax find a spot near the back of the room. “It’s about the experience.”

Everyone in the room seems to have paired off, somehow. Barry and Wally’s sister Iris are sitting together near the front, being disgustingly cute as usual. Seriously—Jax likes Barry, and he likes Iris, but the two of them together? They need to get a room.

Stein is sitting with Caitlin. Cisco is situated at the back of the room, manning the laptop the projector is hooked up to. The weird guy, the guy who looks like Harrison Wells but isn’t quite him, is back there with him, asking a lot of questions and continuing to talk even after Cisco shushes him. Several times. He only quiets down once the movie actually starts.

The opening logos roll, and Jax feels Wally go stiff next to him.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” Jax says, sliding in closer.

“I just realized something,” Wally says. “Do you have any triggers?”

“Triggers?” Jax says. “I don’t—think so. I mean, I’ve got stuff that brings up some bad memories but—nothing that’ll make me have a panic attack.”

“Okay,” Wally says. He relaxes some and leans into Jax’s side. “Just tell me if anything bothers you, alright?”

“I will,” Jax says. Wally nods, and then the two of them quiet down and settle in to watch the movie.

_____

The opening scene is—well, Jax has a hard time taking it seriously. Heroes in these movies never have a functioning family. It’s practically a Star Wars tradition, ever since Luke’s aunt and uncle died in A New Hope. It figures that the hero of this movie would be just as unlucky. It’s pretty cliché.

But still. Jax watches the opening scene and thinks of his mom. He remembers Stein being captured in soviet Russia, being marched off to an uncertain fate by armed guards. He recalls all the times he’s had to run when the plan went awry.

The opening scene of Rogue One sends a shiver down Jax’s spine.

_____

In the movie, Saw Gerrera stands in the mouth of a cave and stares down the death of a planet as it thunders toward him. He’s not afraid of it. He’s ready to go.

It makes Jax think of a prison yard in Russia, where he stared down a nuclear woman and saved his partner from a terrible fate. It makes him think of the feeling he had when he did it. He wasn’t scared, not really. He’d been—beyond that, somehow. He’d run straight across the yard in under fifteen seconds. He’d survived one blast from the crazy scientist already. He’d felt—not invincible, exactly, but strong. He hadn’t panicked. He’d known that Stein was inside that woman, that he would keep on staying her hand as long as he could. Jax had thought he might die, in that moment, but the thought hadn’t made it all the way through him. He’d trusted Stein, because he knew what they meant to each other. He knew his partner wouldn’t let him down.

So neither of them died that night. Jax is still alive, and Stein is not only alive, but still perfectly willing to merge and form Firestorm, the real Firestorm. They’re both far luckier than they really should have been.

In the movie, Saw Gerrera isn’t so lucky. He dies. It feels like a cautionary tale.

_____

Jyn Erso’s father dies, and Jax can’t watch.

He buries his face in Wally’s shoulder and tries to let the sounds of the scene pass him by. That’s easier. He’s heard plenty of battle noises before. It’s easier to disconnect himself from what’s happening on-screen when it’s only noise, when he’s pressed into Wally’s side. Wally is real, more real than whatever’s in the movie. Wally proves that Jax is alive, and okay, and happier than he ever thought he’d be.

“Jax? Are you okay?” Wally whispers. Jax nods.

“Yeah. I’m good.” He is. He doesn’t feel terrible, he just—doesn’t want to watch. “I’m good.”

The scene takes a long time to pass. When it finally does, Jax looks up again.

“What’d I miss?”

“Cassian didn’t shoot her father,” Wally says.

“But he died.”

Wally pauses for about three seconds before he answers. For a speedster, that’s a long pause. “Yeah. It was—Krennic.”

Jax nods. It happens. Villains kill people. He’s seen it happen more times than he can count, in real life, and he’s sure Wally has, too. A movie shouldn’t bother him so much.

“I hope Jyn kills him.”

Wally nods, smiling slightly. Jax leans his head on his shoulder and keeps watching the movie.

_____

Everyone dies in the end.

Jax gets teary-eyed when the robot dies. He starts crying for real when Baze and Chirrut go, literally dying in each other’s arms. He lets out a little cheer when Krennic gets his ass kicked by Jyn and Cassian.

He stops crying when Jyn and Cassian have their final scene.

It seems… peaceful. Which is a weird way to describe death, especially death by planet-destroying laser. But it does. It’s almost beautiful, in a way: two people holding each other, finding strength in each other in their last moments. They know nothing can stop what’s about to happen, so they make peace with it and cherish their final moments. When Jax dies, he thinks that’s how he’d like to go.

Stein is sad as hell about the ending. Jax can feel it, and when he glances over in that direction he catches the professor inconspicuously wiping away a tear. Jax sends a wave of amusement in Stein’s direction, and gets annoyance back in return. He smiles.

_Softy._

_____

Jax lets out an audible gasp in the final scene, when Princess Leia turns around. Her face is radiant, youthful, full of, well, hope. It’s not what Jax expected to see; he tells Wally as much as the credits roll.

“What did you think was gonna happen?” Wally says, amused.

“I didn’t think she’d turn around,” Jax says. “I thought it would just be, like, a body double or something.”

“Fun fact,” Cisco says from the back of the room. “Princess Leia and Grand Moff Tarkin were both rendered completely in CGI for this movie.”

“No way,” Jax says. Now that he thinks about it, there was something that seemed off about Tarkin, something Jax couldn’t place while he was trying to pay attention to the movie.

“I still like The Force Awakens better,” Iris says. She stands up and stretches, and Barry moves with her.

“I concur with Ms. West,” Stein says. He’s standing up too. “This film was… well, darker than one would expect from a Star Wars film.”

“I’m sorry,” Cisco says. Apparently he’s taking Stein’s statement as a challenge. “Have you seen Revenge of the Sith?”

“Cisco,” Barry says, sounding tired.

“Yes, I have,” Stein says. He’s gearing himself up for an all-out debate—a friendly debate, but a debate all the same. Jax can feel it. “Once. It was a terrible film on nearly every conceivable level.”

“Just because George Lucas can’t write dialogue for shit—”

“A writer’s ability to _write_ is the backbone of a film! _Any_ film!”

The debate goes on. Barry sighs very loudly. Wally stifles a laugh, hiding it behind his hand.

“I had no idea you were so invested in Star Wars, Gray,” Jax says under his breath. Stein shoots him a look, and then goes back to arguing with Cisco.

Jax stands, and Wally hops up next to him.

“Didn’t you meet George Lucas once?” Wally says. The corner of his mouth twitches up into a smile.

“Almost,” Jax says. “Not quite. Hey, what time is it?”

Wally checks his phone. “Six-fourteen.”

“Oh, man, I have to get going.”

“Where?”

“I promised my mom I’d meet her at my aunt’s house,” Jax says. “Family get-together. After what happened last time I promised that, I _cannot_ be late.”

“Need a ride?”

Jax laughs. Then he looks up and realizes that Wally is serious.

“You—you’d really—” Jax looks his boyfriend up and down. “There’s no way you could carry me all the way across town.”

“You wanna bet?” Wally smirks.

“Sure,” Jax says. “Go on. Sweep me into your arms.”

And Wally does.

Cisco interrupts his debate with Stein to let out a little cheer. Iris laughs.

“Get a room, you two,” she calls. Wally makes a face at her, and then ducks down to give Jax a quick kiss.

“You ready?” he says.

“Hell yeah,” Jax says. “I’ve never run with you before.”

“Well, it’s time we changed that,” Wally says, and then he takes off.

As Wally carries him through the streets of Central City, Jax feels like he’s the luckiest man in the entire timestream.

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written for Jax Jackson Appreciation Week 2017 and posted on tumblr.


End file.
